Chandlering My Way to the Future

Every couple of hours I noticed a huge change in my feelings towards my new job... sometimes I'm nervous ("am I good enough of a programmer?") and other times I'm thrilled ("I get my own desk, my own workspace, and my own computer!"). One common bridge that both feelings share is the goal of organization. Going into a new, high-demand job means that staying organized is more important than even before.

With Microsoft Outlook quickly becoming an afterthought for me, especially in terms of structural organization, I've looked to a new product that I discovered in a rather odd manner: I read Dreaming In Code recently, which is a non-fiction novel chronicling the creation of Chandler, a new type of personal information manager.

Chandler 1.0 recently hit, and despite being software that feels somewhat incomplete still, I will say this: Chandler does a lot right. A lot.

First and foremost, Chandler attempts to bridge the gap between the rigid structures of computers and the free-flowing thought of the human mind. To do this, Chandler treats all the information that you enter into it as a "thought" - in this case, the form of a note. Have a quick, spontaneous thought that you need to jot down for later? Type up a few words to describe it and press Enter. Later, when the time is convenient for you, Chandler allows you to add details to these notes, and allows for organization by triage status (how important this note is), as well as conversion to to-do tasks, calendar events, and emails. In other words, information that you enter into Chandler all starts as the same generic, one-line note, but expand and evolve based on your specific needs of that thought or note. Brilliant.

Chandler has thus far replaced Outlook in about 3/4 of my organization tasks. The final piece of the puzzle, e-mail, is a bit trickier: Chandler thus far allows you to recieve and send basic emails, and extend the previously-mentioned mutations to them, but does not allow for advanced editing or organization. Still, in a couple of more version numbers, I think Chandler will blow Outlook out of the water.

Give it a shot, if you get the time.